Philip Buckingham: This club has been for sale since April 2014, are we any closer to seeing new owners?

Ehab Allam: No. Unfortunately not. I have been fairly consistent all the way through. The club is for sale but it seems the interest in Hull is only when the club is in the Premier League. The attraction is the Premier League. We’ve seen investment from the US and more recently from the Far East, and the interest is in the Premier League. The location of Hull isn’t attractive either. There may still be interest in some Championship clubs, such as Reading. That’s 20 minutes from Heathrow.

They’re the same people who were interested in this club but once we lost our Premier League status, they started looking for a London-based club in the Championship. The interest in Hull is limited compared to a London club, just because of lifestyle. They’re wealthy people and it has to fit in with their lifestyle aspirations as well. Buying a London club is a lot more attractive than buying a club in East Yorkshire. Leeds was attractive because of the stature of that club historically. The same goes for Aston Villa and Birmingham. But you’ll find the two clubs that struggle to find new ownership in the Championship are the likes of Hull and Sunderland because their location to a foreign investor isn’t attractive.

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Are there any interested parties currently on the scene?

No.

How do you rate the prospects of a sale as a Championship club?

As a Championship club with the potential to be promoted, as the season progresses and we work our way up the table, I think interest will increase. That would be down to the potential of being in the Premier League.

A proposed takeover of Hull City by a Chinese consortium, led by Dai Yongge and Dai Xiu Li, was close to completion before its collapse last September

Why weren’t you able to sell the club when you were in the Premier League?

The sale was happening but, as I’m sure you’re aware, the sale fell through because the owners (a proposed group fronted by Dai Yongge and Dai Xiu Li) failed the Premier League’s test. That was out of our control. The agreement was made, the deposit paid. All the contracts were signed. Share purchase agreement signed, all the warranties approved. It was a done deal. Had the Premier League approved it, we wouldn’t have been able to back out. We were just waiting on the seal of approval that we didn’t get unfortunately.

How close to anyone has it come after that?

We’d had other interest. There was interest from the US but unfortunately they kept on changing the goalposts. When I looked into it, I discovered they were still trying to raise the funds through a consortium. If you look at takeovers that have actually happened, it’s generally been a single owner who’s already got the capital to invest. Consortiums where they’re looking for more people to chip in, they rarely get over the line.

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I wouldn’t like to comment on individual names but we have had interest from the US that was relying on a consortium. That makes it very difficult for all the pieces to fall into place.

Was the club for sale at a fair price?

Obviously because we got through to the final stages. When you get a deal done and sign everything, of course it’s a fair price. We did have additional interest from an American-Chinese consortium, which I think was well-documented at the time (as businessman Chien Lee).

Chien Lee (middle) held talks with the Allam family last September

They wanted to fill the shoes of the failed deal. Same numbers, same deal, same structure. They fell slightly short on their finances. We were still motivated to sell so we agreed to retain a small percentage in the club. They could finance 80 per cent but not 100 per cent. We agreed to that but they came back and changed it again down to 60 per cent. When it went down to that, we didn’t feel it would be seen as a sale.

Is the appetite to sell unaltered?

The underlying appetite to sell is still there. If you look at our ownership spell, it’s arguably the best period in the club’s history. We’ve had three years out of the last five in the Premier League, two years winning promotion. That’s not bad going. An FA Cup final, a League Cup semi-final, the first time in Europe. I fail to see what else we can achieve.

We’ve achieved all we can given the limitations set by the FA in terms of rebranding, driving the club forward. We’ve got our hands tied and with limited family resources, I don’t believe we can achieve more than we have. It is time to hand the baton over to a new owner who can drive the club forward. That’s easier said than done.

The last accounts, released in October of last year, showed the club had debts of £99m. Has that been reduced in the last 12 months?

The debt has been reduced. You’ll see in the next set of accounts. I’d say it’s been considerably reduced.

Was that always the aim after winning promotion to the Premier League, to claw some money back?

If we had a different relationship with supporters that wouldn’t necessarily have been the case but the circumstances of owners looking to sell is very different to owners looking to invest as though they were staying. We’re looking to sell so there’s a way of running the club.

Hull City celebrating promotion out of the Championship in May 2016

What is the forecast profit that we’ll see posted in the next set of club accounts?

The profit and loss in a club can be quite misleading. In a sense you can spend £30m on players but there’s only £10m amortised. Then you see another £10m the following year and the year after. Purely looking at the P and L is a little bit deceptive, you need to look at the balance sheets and the liabilities outstanding. Yes, we may have made a profit last year but there’s ongoing liabilities to offset.

A would-be buyer walks into the club now, what would he or she find when they looks at the books?

I think we’re the best run club in the Football League and arguably one of the top six in English football.

In what way?

Financial management, risk management. Player contracts and the flexibility of those. There’s 50 per cent relegation clauses in every single contract. Most years we’ve had a positive net transfer balance on players. You’ll find clubs who sell a player for £3m but spend £6m on a replacement. We don’t leverage the future of the club against last year’s performance. When we buy a player, I always try and buy them over a five-window period, so two years, rather than three or four years. I personally think if I can’t afford a player over two years, then I can’t afford to buy them. I don’t think many clubs will have such a short balance outstanding on players relative to squad value. In that sense I think we’re one of the best run clubs in the country.

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One last financial matter, on Companies House it suggested you’d borrowed money against the training ground at Cottingham in January. Can you clear that up?

We’ve never, ever taken out a loan against the training ground or the stadium. The previous owners had taken out a mortgage on the stadium but not us. There was a mistake that was corrected. Anyone could request a charge on a property. A charge was made (by Macquarie Bank) when they had no right to and it was removed. We’ve never agreed to borrowing against the training ground. We’ve never had to. We’d borrowed money against money that was due to us from other clubs, definitely not secured against anything other than what we were owed from other clubs. It was revoked straight away.

Assem Allam famously said he wanted to give a gift to the city when completing a takeover in 2010, has that turned sour now?

We work with the university, the health service, the sporting world. The football club is one of the ways we’ve contributed in the past. We’re still contributing with our time and effort, even if that means no further funds. We’re trying to reduce the risk and exposure there but I don’t think it’s soured at all. I’m proud of our achievements and most fans would recognise we’ve done a good job compared to the time we acquired it. It was a club heading into oblivion and now we’re a sustainable club at the top end of the Championship.

Hull City's Assem and Ehab Allam.

How do you view the protests against you and your father?

I’ve developed a thick skin. I reflect on our achievements at the club and the perception of the club within the industry and I believe we’re still punching above our weight. We still make the books balance and we’re still very healthy. I’m proud of the family’s achievements in the last seven years. I’m proud about the motivations that underpinned the decision to buy the club, for the sake of the city. That’s changed as relationships with supporters have changed but the reasons for buying the club were honourable. I think we continue to do a great job overall. I understand some fans were upset about a name change application but why they continue to be upset when it’s fallen away is beyond me. There is no current application for a name change and there hasn’t been in the last three seasons. Surely that’s history and we move on.

Can bridges be built with those supporters? Do they want to? Do you want to?

I don’t think they want to build bridges if I’m honest. It’s obvious from their actions. That’s fine, I can’t please everybody. But I do think we’re doing a very good job.

Still to come: Ehab Allam discusses the membership scheme, targets for this season and accusations of asset stripping in the summer